Pages on the Floor

By Janay Blakely

In her debut collection of poems, Miami based poet Janay Blakely explores the connections between language and our bodies, identities, and emotions. Pages on the Floor is a strikingly honest depiction of what it's like to be young African American woman in today's society. Written in a conversational tone

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Blakely Holdings
• Release date: Jan 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985654417

Book preview

On Race

Poplar Trees: an homage to Abel Meeropol’s poem Strange Fruit/ Billie Holiday’s song Strange Fruit

Ain’t no more poplar trees

Their season having seemingly passed

Black bodies blowing in the breeze

Limbs gone limp like withering vines

Ain’t no more poplar trees

But their sap still permeates the air

Drips onto the sidewalk

Creeps into the crops

Staining even the stars

Ain’t no more poplar trees

Confederate leaves waving high in the sky

But their roots run deep

Tripping up the feet of those attempting in vain to pass by

No

Ain’t no more poplar trees

Yet there’s still strange fruit a plenty

picked before their time

My Grandfather’s Hands

Brown sullied dirt molded into life

These are my grandfather’s hands

Large enough to swallow all of the night sky

Hailing from deep Mississippi, remnants of its great river run thick and strong as bulging veins

These are my grandfather’s hands

Hard and calloused, conditioned from years of pulling weeds, the pricking of thorns

From sunrise ‘til sunset

Burnt pages of parchment with illegible messages

Cuban cigars, hand rolled and sickly sweet

Cracked wood of antique tables

Dusty air of the Deep South

The darkness of a cotton field at midnight

Of an empty house

These are my grandfather’s hands

Gemini

I once thought you and I were connected

Two sides of the same coin

Bound by the melanin that coats our DNA

A shared history

A shared pain

I thought

You and I

Were two sides of the same coin

Left spinning from the turn